Cite as: 537 U. S. 88 (2002)
Stevens, J., dissenting
existing appeal of his original federal habeas petition. Id., at 28. On January 18, 2002, the Court of Appeals entered an order that endorsed the District Court's disposition of the Rule 60(b) motion, specifically including its characterization of the motion as a successive habeas petition. Nos. 98-6568/ 6569, 01-6504 (CA6), p. 2, App. 35, 36. In that order the Court of Appeals stated that the "district court properly found that a Rule 60(b) motion is the equivalent of a successive habeas corpus petition," and then held that Abdur'Rahman's petition did not satisfy the gateway criteria set forth in § 2244(b)(2) for the filing of such a petition. Ibid. It concluded that "all relief requested to this panel is denied." Id., at 37. In a second order, entered on February 11, 2002, Nos. 98-6568/6569, 01-6504 (CA6), id., at 38, the Court of Appeals referred to additional filings by petitioner and denied them all.8
Thereafter we stayed petitioner's execution and granted his petition for certiorari to review the Court of Appeals' disposition of his Rule 60(b) motion.9 535 U. S. 1016 (2002).
II
The answer to the jurisdictional questions that we asked the parties to address depends on whether the motion that petitioner filed on November 2, 2001, was properly styled as
8 One paragraph in that order reads as follows: "The order construing an ostensible Rule 60(b) motion as an application for leave to file a second habeas corpus petition . . . is not an appealable order in No. 01-6504, which is therefore DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction." App. 39.
9 The two questions presented in the certiorari petition read as follows: "1. Whether the Sixth Circuit erred in holding, in square conflict with decisions of this Court and of other circuits, that every Rule 60(b) Motion constitutes a prohibited 'second or successive' habeas petition as a matter of law.
"2. Whether a court of appeals abuses its discretion in refusing to permit consideration of a vital intervening legal development when the failure to do so precludes a habeas petitioner from ever receiving any adjudication of his claims on the merits." Pet. for Cert.
93
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